


Animal Instincts

by Nara



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Character Interpretation, Alternate Universe, Dark!Makoto, Emotional Manipulation, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-28 00:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nara/pseuds/Nara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because of all the animals they each represent, the orca was the most dangerous of all. Dark!Makoto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Animal Instincts

**Author's Note:**

> Orcas are deadly, more deadly than the other animals that represents each character. But Makoto himself is the sweetest, most caring, big-brotherly type. I'd been thinking about this since the start of the series (I'm sure I'm not the only one) and then wrote it around the time episode 8 came out. It's an alternate interpretation of certain scenes assuming Makoto was truly a creature of the darkness.

_Orcas will play with, kill, and eat sharks for fun. For a while there was a question of “Who would win in a fight between an orca and a great white?” But while a shark in general can be truly fearsome, it turns out there’s no contest._

With Rin, it’s easy. All it takes is a few cutting remarks and he crumbles.

  _One._ “You’ll never be as good as Haru” he whispers as he bids Rin goodbye before the boy heads to Australia. Makoto feels rather than sees Rin’s shoulders stiffen but he says nothing more before stepping into his mother’s car.

  _Two_. “Even if you beat him, it doesn’t matter, because Haru doesn’t care about you” he grins upon the red head’s return. Rin doesn’t respond, but Makoto knows he’s hit home.

  _Three_. “Without Haru to compete against, you’d be nothing. Now that you’ve ‘beaten him’, you’ve pushed him away, and you too will fall by the wayside.” A pause. “You’ll never be as good as your father.”

 At that, Rin froze. He turned around with a snarl. “What did you say?”

 Makoto simply smirked. “You will never be as good as your father. You will never be as good as Haru – even though you may have beaten him here. You will never be an Olympic swimmer.” He took a step closer. Rin was seething with anger, but Makoto was taller, stronger, and his only intent was to hurt. He put his hand on Rin’s cheek. “All you ever do is run. You’ll chase behind them, or run away. You will never catch up. You will always be left behind.”

 Rin shoved Makoto hard into the wall and stormed away, but Makoto laughed. Rin was nothing. It took so little to get him angry. He might fight back, he might even win a few battles, but that was what made the game fun. In the end, Makoto would break him.

 ~

_Dolphins and orcas may be a part of the same species, but when it comes down to it, an orca will attack and kill his dolphin cousin for fun. No matter how close they may be, it’s not close enough._

Makoto has known Haruka for all of his life. They grew up together, and from the beginning, Haruka was his.

 From the outside it looks like Makoto is the good friend – he wakes Haru up to make sure he gets to school. He sits with him at lunch because after Rin left and before Nagisa arrived at the high school, Haru had no other friends. Haru only cared about the water.

 “Without you, I’m meaningless” Makoto whispers to Haru in the downpour. It builds Haru up, keeps him blind to the truth. But in fact it is Haru who is meaningless without Makoto. He would have nothing but the water and no matter how much he loves it, that wouldn’t sustain him for very long.

 Makoto owns Haruka, and Haru-chan is his best friend, his personal plaything. Makoto will make sure that swimming free is the closest Haruka ever gets to freedom.

 ~

_A butterfly does not belong in the water. It will drown. It is too fragile. A butterfly and an orca don’t even exist in the same world._

 Rei was the newest and that was his weakness. He joined the swim team before he even knew how to swim! Makoto had barely contained his laughter when Haru had said “Maybe the water just doesn’t like you” when Rei kept failing. Makoto could see the insecurity in Rei’s eyes. It plagued him. He was just so eager to belong and to do well.

 Makoto hardly even needed to do anything to break him. Give him a kickboard, tell him it’s okay that he’s not as good as everyone else. Slowly wear down his self-esteem. Make him think that it doesn’t matter how much progress he’s made because everyone else is worlds ahead, worlds apart.

 “You’re not a swimmer. You don’t belong here.” he whispers into their tent at the training camp. He knows Rei’s not asleep, but he doesn’t press it further. Doubt is the game here, not anger like it is with Rin. He stays silent and feigns sleep, letting Rei think he imagined it, letting the doubt grow.

 He hears Rei get up to go practice and smirks. He hears the storm come in and heads out. Makoto watches for a moment before diving in. He has a role he still needs to play and the game isn’t over yet. He knows Haru will “save” him and he will be commended for going and trying to save Rei, in spite of his supposed fear of the ocean.

 He also knows almost drowning will cut Rei down even further, and he won’t have much farther to fall.

 ~

_Penguins are social creatures, they live, love, and play in groups. And while an orca can take out a whole group of penguins with relative ease, a single, isolated penguin is easy pickings_.

 Nagisa needed his friends more than he needed anything else. As an enthusiastic extrovert, in the swim team setting he thrived. All he wanted was to swim with his friends.

When Rin refused to acknowledge him, that hurt. But Rin always cared more about Haru anyway. When Haru retreated further and further into the water, away from everybody and everything else, but never quite cut off, Nagisa didn’t know what to do. And when Rei pulled back from the swimming team, mumbling about not belonging, Nagisa was stuck.

 Makoto was the only one left. From there it was easy. On his own, Nagisa was lost, Nagisa was nothing.

 And in the end, they all fall to Makoto.


End file.
